o o c || The Academy

[biverbam]

Here's a huge, far more practically informative write-up on the Academy for Taxon. Hopefully this will help more if anyone comes around to explore again.


Over in Wilde, there's a small office building1 with pavement meant for parking, though the spots are marked with circles instead of lines (high end government facility means rich people means sporty hover-vehicles). Feel free to make up "RESERVED: [name here]" things as you will, though all the spots are empty. The front doors to the building read 'Anglo-Sino Alliance Honors Institute: Financial Offices,' with generic office hours listed below.

Inside the building is mostly things like cubicles and data servers. All the information is will be accounting paperwork going back to the school year 2499-2500, from student financial aid to department budgets. Anyone snooping will find that the "landscaping" budget is sucking money like a black hole, and has been since 2504, which coincides with records showing that this is the year they received a grant from the Parliament's Committee for Education. The front desk will also have a nice holder with pamphlets advertising the school itself.

On the first floor (anywhere on the first floor, though probably hidden a bit) is an 'Authorized Personnel Only' holo-door with the Allied Planets seal. You would need a keycard to open it (not anymore, everything is open now), and it leads to a high security records room2 and an elevator that goes down into the lower levels. This records room holds more sensitive information, like classified student profiles, backup copies of the students' interview sessions videos, the financial (payroll) and employment information on the staff in the lower levels, and all holo security footage.

Another entrance to the lower levels is a large, open elevator shaft outside the building. There's a large control panel next to it, and it's layout and functions are all rather simplistic, though a key is usually required to make the lift go up and down from the surface. Now, though, it's like most doors on Taxon and will work for just about anyone. This is the loading dock where they receive supplies and comatose students3.

The lower levels go as follows (the higher the number, the lower it is, and each level is soundproofed against the others):

1. Offices and security
   
2. Staff dorms (four floors)
   
3. Exam and interview rooms
4. Operating rooms
5. Training areas (five floors)
6. Classrooms
   
7. Student dorms (two floors)

Offices and security: For the doctors and officials on staff. Each door has a name on it, though only a few have titles. The largest office belongs to Dr. Evander Mathias, and the title beneath his name reads Program Director. Security is one large room, staffed by two officers, with monitors for all the security cameras in the building.

Staff dorms: Two floors are rooms for all staff of the lower levels, from doctors to janitors. All the rooms are plush, apartment-like, with a bedroom and a living area. Below these areas is a cafeteria and recreational area.

Exam and interview rooms: Exam rooms are very similar to those of a regular doctor's office, all of which are fully stocked and prepared to care for any injuries a student may receive during training or that are self-inflicted. Interview rooms4 are tandems, with one room being stark, with only a table and two chairs, with a two-way mirror linking it to the observation room, through which the interviews, or sessions5, are recorded.

Operating rooms: Most of the floor is taken up by regular, large operating rooms, all fully stocked and ready. Two rooms, however, have a setup with a chair, neuroimaging monitors, and assorted other ominous medical doohickeys. This is where most of the work is done concerning the removal of the amygdala and other brain-scaping6.

Training areas: Large, open rooms consisting of things like shooting ranges, exercise areas, and simulation rooms with holographic capabilities7.

Classrooms: Does what it says on the tin. Throughout the rest of their training, they are still expected to attend some classes. These are generally taught by doctors working in the lower levels and the farther along in the process a student is, the less they are shuffled to their daily classes in favor of other work in the interview rooms or combat training.

Student dorms: There are only ever about sixty students at a time in the lower levels, split evenly between male and female. They are kept on separate floors, and in separate rooms. Each room is capable of individual climate change, has full soundproofing, and is void of anything with which a student may harm him or herself. No sharp corners, no metal, and a small toilet and sink in the corner. The rooms themselves are fairly large, all things considered, though there are places in the walls to which a student can be attached and the bed has restraints, should these measures become necessary8.

Overall, the floorplan changes depending on which level you're on, though each level is labyrinthine in most respects. Hallways that circle around each other, dead ends, and flickering fluorescent lights overhead abound.

Extras: This is the tricky bit, and mods please feel free to tell me if/when I messed something about them up so that I can change it.

As far as the people in the financial offices go, they're not going to be terribly bright or taken aback by people coming in and wandering around. They might ask you what you're doing there, but make up a flimsy line about auditing or something and establish yourself as being there on someone else's authority and they'll leave you be to do as you like with a bright smile and, "Come get me if you need me." They can answer questions about the financial office's cover operation however you'd like, though it won't be anything too much in depth. Government run school, located away from campus for space and security reasons, etc.

Someone will stop you should you try to get into the records room, but if you can open the door before they get to you they'll assume you've got a keycard, are authorized to enter, and will leave you alone.

Down in the lower levels, things will go a little differently. You will be ejected from the lower levels if you can't come up with a better line (think something about being a Parliament representative sent to overlook the progress of the students) and are very assertive with it or if you're incredibly good at sneaking about and hiding in plain sight. There are storage rooms on each floor with things like doctor's scrubs and patient hospital gowns in a myriad of sizes that will help you blend in.

On levels where there will be students present, they'll all be generally very submissive and obedient to their handlers. All the staff outside the doctors wear surgical masks and name-tags with a six-digit number for their identification in the levels outside the offices and staff dorms. Psychics won't pick up anything from anyone at all, and if you try to listen in on an interview, it will be something along the lines of:

Interviewer: What do you see?
Student: [describes something vague, like a flower or person]

Listening in on other interviews will get the same results. Every single time. The voices will be slightly dissimilar, but it will be like listening to the same conversation between different people. Operating rooms will all be empty, and one of the neuor-scaping rooms will be occupied. Inside will be one sleeping student (either male or female, depending on the time of day) in the chair with a needle in his or her forehead and a small group of doctors milling around and 'talking' to each other. Listening closely will only get you medical sounding gibberish about brains and how well the student in question is progressing.

The training areas will be occupied in only a few areas. One will have a group going through a cooperative exercise. They won't speak out loud at all, but will move in sync with one another and complete the exercise without any mishaps. The shooting range will have two students shooting blindfolded at moving targets.

Classrooms will have about five students in each, all of them looking oddly similar to one another, and will be writing nonsense scribble-lines on their papers while they study blank books very studiously under the near-unblinking gaze of a doctor. Down in the student dorms, only a few will be occupied. Depending on the time of day, some will be getting escorted in or out.

Should you stay down in the lower levels long enough, you'll notice that everyone moves through their daily routine and does the same things over and over again in an endless cycle of creepy.

Have fun with that. :D

1. Images: [1]
2. Images: [1], [2], [3], [4]
   
3. After a certain amount of time in the Gifted dorms on the actual school campus, a student is given a drug that induces a comatose state and they are transported from the school's campus to the Academy's lower levels. Images: [1], [2]
   
4. Progress of what is officially referred to as 'enhanced cognitive abilities' is documented through interviews with a coach. They will set up specific memories for the subject to find and then explain to the best of their ability. These interviews are also used to track the subject's general progress within the program.
5. See the R. Tam Sessions.
6. Five needles are inserted into the brain through the left temple to begin the removal of pre-determined parts of the amygdala and limbic system when a subject first arrives. This process continues, using localized acid to burn some parts away without having to actually crack a subject's skull (though that is sometimes necessary when complications occur). Images: [1], [2], [3], [4]
   
7. For both physical training (combat and weapons) and simulated 'exercises' including but not limited to: Memory precision (subjects are put in a room for varying amounts of time then quizzed on it afterward until they are at the point where a room can be memorized at a glance), 'intuitive' aim (subjects are shown a series of targets for, at the most, a few seconds and are then blindfolded while they shoot), and advanced tactics (subjects are given a scenario with limited information and must plan a successful assault). The holographic training rooms are also used in the resocialization process wherein subjects are shown actors or holoprograms where escape or safety is simulated, and are then punished if they leak information about the Academy/their treatment/etc.
8. Some restraints are capable of delivering an electric shock, anywhere from low to high voltages, and are often used during the resocialization process. Students are also without any personal effects by this point, though they can earn some things (hair brushes, letter-writing privileges [all correspondence is still strictly regulated and censored], better food, etc.) through good behavior.